1st Grow: Russian Rocket Fuel - 250wHPS, GL60 Tent, Soil

[RiddleMeThis]

The 4 oldest girls are about 7 weeks along. When I last used FF nutes, I had given them 2 feedings with the added grow big, then got curious and gave 3 of them a feeding with technafloras flowering mix(the one I listed above.) With this being an 8-10 week strain, and the trichomes are probably 50% clear, 50% cloudy, no amber yet, when exactly should I think about flushing? I havent given these girls a good flush, and honestly, I probably havent been running enough water through them (damn big growbags.) I was planning on giving them a good week long flush. Should I keep feeding them or start flushing since we are at 7 weeks? Maybe feed til 8 weeks? Or is there a combo of cloudy/amber/clear trich's that will suggest when to flush?

The youngest girl, the one I topped, is 6 weeks along. What would you recommend for her? She has pretty much been on the same nute schedule, and recieved a half dose of week 7/8 recommended feeding on the fox farm website.

All of them are on the brink of needing a watering/feeding, gonna give them some distilled water and wait for your suggestion. Thanks a ton for the help man, I really appreciate it!

rmt

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Pictures!

Pictures!

Pictures!

RRF #2 - 7 Weeks

RRF #3 - 7 weeks

Any idea what the yellowing is about? Could just be nature taking its course? Started happening around 6 weeks, thought it might be N deficient, and wasnt sure if I hit them with veg formula long enough(autoflowers were kind of confusing as far as following nutrient schedules).

RRF #4 - 7 weeks - in 3 gal. bag

RRF #5 - 6 weeks

Auto Mystery Kush - 7 weeks

AND, heres some shots of some supposed Sour Diesel. Smells and tastes sweet/fruity kind of, really hard to describe, much different than most of the quality dank around here. Its a great smoke regardless!

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Any advice on when to start flushing? They are about 50 days in now, supposed to be done in 56-70 days

 

[FC89]

hey riddle, your grow seems great so far! I have some RRF beans that I'm eagerly waiting to pop, I'm just curious, how tall do you think your plants are right now? Any idea on yield yet? I've heard that a good way to judge is with one of those microscopes you get from radioshack, not sure which kind though but I'm sure others will post. Everything looks great so far though!

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Checked them with my little microscope, hard to tell really. Gonna google some trich pics to get an idea of what to look for. Id say my tallest girl is ~12". I made quite a few mistakes this grow that likely stunted their growth. Id guess they could get much larger if grown properly. Not sure about yield either, however, the nugs seem quite dense, and the aroma is a very odd fruity musk, some with a hint of skunk as well.

 

[FC89]

awesome man, I can't wait to pop the beans that I have. Would you say that RRF is a nute-sensitive strain? Just wondering before I start mine. Your buds look delicious though. What would you say you messed up on? Im a newb so to me it seems that you did everything fine so far, would you say it was your watering? I see that your using either like 2-3 gal bags? How much do you water? any RO? I'm asking cause I'll be using the same size pots. Looking good though, looks like you'll be chopping in the next couple weeks!

 

[RiddleMeThis]

I would go from 16oz beer cups to 1.5gal pots max. Anything bigger is a waste! Keep them in the beer cups until they show sex, then transplant into the 1.5 gal pots.

I would say the RRF's were not that nute sensitive, although obviously you want to start with lower doses and work your way up depending on how the plant responds. I watered until maybe 5-10% ro usually, sometimes no ro. Used tap, distilled, spring, and combined both at times to correct ph naturally.

I would use 24/0 lights for first week of sprouting, then 20/4 or 18/6 the rest if the way. I used CFLs until right around when they were showing sex (between 16 and 21 days from seed!)

For my next project, i'll be using coco, gh flora nutes, closely monitoring ph/ppm(buying my digi pen soonish), modular scrog'ing the girls, and hopefully successfully taking clones so I can perpetually provide myself with some decent meds without the risks of dealing with shady people.

If ya have any other ?s, lemme know! kinda high atm, bout to pass out! thanks for stoppin in!

 

[FC89]

You sure that anything over 1.5 would be a waste? My friend lent me some 2g Air pots, and I don't really have any $ for the other pots. I was hoping that the extra room could possibly lead to maybe more yield? But for the rest of your advice seems pretty good, I'm going to be using peat pellets to germ them so I could go from the peat pellets to beer cups to final pots. I think I'll follow your advice and keep them in the beer cups till they show sex, would you say its about 50/50 for male to female ratio? I'm growing in a mini fridge so with the air pots the space will be tight, and I'll only be able to put in 4 and having 4 females would be awesome.

Seems like you got your next project already planned out, modular scrogging is definitely a sweet way to go. Cant wait to see the results.

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Hmm, the 2 gallon airpots are nice, thats what 4 of the 5 girls are in. They will definitely work, and by all means use them if you have to, just saying, I dont think anything over 1.5gal is really necessary. My ratio was 50/50, so cant complain. Just watch out for hermie's, no joke. I kinda got lazy about it and my mystery kush went hermie. Not too upset since the mystery kush buds smell fantastic, and I think if I didnt mess it up so bad she would have been a great plant. So, hopefully these seeds are viable and I have a nice little cross between the 2. Gonna use those auto seeds during/between regular grows due to their good timing, and flexibility of light schedules

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Plans for the next project!

Plans for the next project!

Here are my plans for my next project:

Modular ScroG Wick (never dump run-off) System a la
VerdantGreen
and
*mistress*

I used MSPaint to draw up a diagram of how exactly this setup looks

Not shown are the 4 "wicks" in each side of the square pot, 2" above the bottom of the pot. I will cut the lids of the 3gallon buckets so that the square pots will sit as the diagram illustrates.

Materials:
GL60 Tent (L 24" x W 24" x H 63")
250w Switchable MH/HPS
GH Flora Micro, Flora Bloom, and Kool-Bloom Powder (per Rezdog's Recipe)
Coco & Chunky Perlite (70/30 ratio)


Tent should be able to hold 4 final pots, with ~21" between the top of the screens and safe distance from the light. Hopefully 21" of vertical growspace should be enough? How full would you let the screen get before going to 12/12 with 21" of space above the screen? I know this is strain dependent, but as a guideline, what would you suggest?

Not sure exactly how I should go about repotting since I am doing a ScroG. I would prefer not to put the girls into their final modular ScroG pots until they have shown sex. Worried about how big they will be by the time they show sex (as I am starting from seed, not clones this time around), and whether or not they will fit under the screen. What do you guys think the optimal repotting process would be for something like this? The plants will be handwatered in coco until final potting.

I'll be looking for 4 girls total in this first run, 2x DGS SC99's and 2x DGS Mystic Gem's. I'll take cuts from the girls, once I have enough rooted, ill flower those girls. Once harvested, i'll determine the best mom from each, and start a perpetual harvest using their clones. From then on, ill piggyback clones from the flowering clones.

Also, I will be purchasing a digital pH meter for this. Suggestions anyone?

Thats all I can think of for now. Any critique would be greatly appreciated!

rmt

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Did some shopping!

Did some shopping!

Here's what I got:

Milwaukee pH51 Waterproof pH-meter
B'Cuzz Coco (no perlite mixed in)
GH Flora Micro & Bloom
pH Down
and a nifty new sprayer!

Gonna germ some bagseed to get some practice with seedlings in coco, most likely gonna kill them before long. Also using them to test out my little clone/veg chamber

Gonna set up this pH pen now

 

[RiddleMeThis]

So, last night I got to place with some of my new toys!

Checked all of the girls, and god damn are the buds starting to get big. Didnt snap any shots this time, sorry!

Since they dried up a bit, and I hadnt really given them a good flush yet, especially before a feed to wash out any junk, I gave them a good watering before their feed. pH'd the water to 7.0. I then fed them 30ml of SugarDaddy and 2.5ml of MagiCal, pH'd to 6.5, and the runoff tested at ~6.3 +/- 0.1.

This is plants 1-4's last feed, they will be flushed from here on out. Plant 5, RRF #5, will get one or 2 more feedings of that pre-harvest formula before flush.

I made use of my bubble stones, aerating their feed solution for a good 30 minutes or so, along with the reservoir holding the h20.

Ok, now for some questions:

1) My tap water's pH is quite high, and the guys at the hydro shop say it sucks. Despite our cities water being one of the highest ranking for drinking water, it is apparently not great for plants. The pH tested at ~8.7. With my last batch of nute's, I only had to pH it down .3, but for my plain water, I had to pH down from 8.7 to 7. Is this bad?

2) I am planning on staggering my harvests, but am not sure the best way to go about it. I was planning on removing maybe some of the cola's since those have been closest to the light, and are blocking light to lower inner budsites. I will definitely chop the tops of the big-budded side-shoots since they all have a slightly light deprived spot underneath. Could use this to even the canopy a bit also and drop the light a bit closer. Thoughts on this?

3) So this new Milwaukee pH pen is cool and all, and I really want to take care of it and make it last awhile. My question is regarding storing it after use. They say "put a few drops of storage solution or the 7.0 buffer in its cap before storing it." I put a few drops in, but I am nervous about the probe drying out. How do I know if its enough or not? Could I just stand the probe straight up, probe and cap down and fill it with a good amount of solution so I know the probe is soaking. Or what about even just storing it in the pouch of solution that came with the kit? What would you guys/gals suggest?


Please feel free to point out anything I might be doing wrong that I havent noticed or mentioned, I will not be offended at all! After all, this is my first experience, and I really want to improve

Thanks again

rmt

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Random update:

RRF #2: Biggest plant of the lot, however, the buds don't seem as dense as the others, though they do look great

RRF #3: This girl is shorter than #2, same structure, bud extremely dense, resinous buds. The cola is starting to bed over :-\

RRF #4: This is the only girl in a 3gal smartpot. She is by far the best looking girl, similar structure to #2 and #3, but by far the densest, most crystalized buds of the lot. Looks like sugar was sprinkled all over

RRF #5: This is the girl I experimented topping with, and I think I really may be glad I did. There are tons of beautiful, dense, resinous bud-sites, very uniform looking.

Mystery Kush #1: Wow, I must say I am impressed with this little runt. I almost did away with her a good while ago, and I am glad I didnt. She is forming some incredibly dense buds, however, due to stunted growth/bad topping, she is only ~5" tall, and looks like one giant bud. I would like to chop some of the bigger buds to get light to the budsites embedded in the cluster.

Speaking of harvesting plants in sections, is this ok to do? There are a few budsites on some of the girls that arent getting as much light as others, making them look a bit less developed. Id like to give them a chance to get some light and develop more if I can.

Also, now I have no idea if my plants hermi'd, were pollinated, or anything like that. I thought they were because the calyxe's hairs started to turn orang'ish in early flowering, and when I chopped one off, and split it open, there was a little white thing I assumed to be an undeveloped seed. Now I have 0 idea...

Any help would be appreciated, thanks guys

rmt

 

[RiddleMeThis]

bump?

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Update on the ladies:

I accidentally snapped a budsite on the younger RRF at 48 days, and let it dry for 2 days and cure for 2 days. Weighed 3.6g wet, .9 exactly dry and cured. The smoke was OK, taste wasnt completely there imho, tasted young I guess? My buddies all thought it was dank as hell and once I left the room and came back, it did reak. As far as the effects of the smoke, it was great. Very uppy head buzz, lot of fun.

As far as harvesting the older girls, I am still debating where to start. They are 58 days in now, and have had 2 good waterings with 30% runoff or more. They were all last fed 7 days ago. The buds have started getting much heavier, colas starting to lean. I havent noticed all that much yellowing of the lower leaves yet though, only on the younger RRF which I just decided I was going to harvest at 8 weeks exactly, so shes been flushed maybe a bit early? Looks like N deficiency tbh, but I dont want to give her any more nutes with only 6 days left.

I have been considering chopping the cola's first to allow some light to the lower buds, but dont want to yank them too soon. Thoughts/suggestions? Also, how many waterings would you say it takes to really flush out the chemical taste in soil? Thanks guys, kinda buzzed atm, sorry for the jumble.

Also, forgot to mention, no seeds in the bud that was picked/smoked. Starting to think I am just dumb and somehow convinced myself one herm'd and seeded my crop. Seems to be some nice sensimilla

rmt


Heres some pics
Cab shot

Mystery kush

RRF #2

RRF #3

RRF #4 (3gal smartpot)

RRF #5 (1 week younger than the rest, and the one that the sample came from at 48 days - being 51 days in now, should I worry about the discoloration of her leaves? the others are older, and not showing discoloration like this...)

Assorted budshots

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Had the fan/filter turned off for less than 5 minutes and wow did my room small! Wont be doing that again any time soon

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Harvested about 2/3 of the cola on RRF #2, and some of the bigger buds on MK #1. I mainly just wanted to clear up some light for the rest of the girl. They may still be a bit young, but according to the strains description, they are an 8-10 week strain, and we're a bit past 8 weeks now. Wet weight was ~30g. Will post pics of dry bud/weight in a few days. I must say, these girls are smothered in crystals and they smell funky/fruity/semi-skunky, although they all differ in smell slightly.

I plan on giving them another watering tomorrow, and will harvest the 2nd batch once they dry out a bit. Going for 3-4 different harvests over the next 10-15 days.

Setup my clone cab today (which is acting as a drying chamber atm). Its just a 35gal 19" tall rubbermaid. I drilled 5 1" intake holes on one side, and cut out a 4" hole on the other, which has 4" ducting taped airtight to act as an exhaust. I will eventually add some computer fans for airflow once I actually have plants in there. There is a good amount of airflow without the cpu fans, enough to pull in a lighter flame and put it out.

Still waiting on the DGS Swt99's to arrive... been 3 weeks, getting nervous

Blah, enough babbling

thanks for stopping in!

rmt

 

[FC89]

plants are looking great man! cant wait to see the final results, some of those colas are looking hugeeee. I wouldn't worry about the seeds, it took me like a month, maybe a month and a week.

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Well, harvested about 75% of RRF #3, and she really looked ready, leaves were yellowing and dying off everywhere except the bud shoots. Chopped her today and shes drying. Today we smoked the RRF harvested ~4 days ago, dried for about 2 days, and cured for 2. Just a small sample, about 1gr., but man did it have us all geeked. My buddy told me this was better than the jack herrer he gets around here, which is actually quite good. I dunno if its that good, but as of right now its certainly some of the best bud i've smoked, just not sure if its THE best. That chemdog I got from the reggae festival last year is still what I am really looking for. Pretty excited to let these buds get a nice cure before really dipping into them. The longer theyre in the jars, the more intense the buds start to smell . Oh, also, when we were burning today, my buddy said it tasted weird, and I asked like what, and he said fruity diesel fuel. Thought that was pretty funny. After 1 bowl pack in my bubbler, 4 of us were pretty good. Shit, I still am. Sorry for the ramble, I will try to actually get some picks up soon!

 

[RiddleMeThis]

Havent updated any pics lately, so heres a few. Im thinking i'll get between 2 and 3 z's.

Just cut

After some cleaning up, ready to be hung to dry

Attempt at a closeup

Dried buds about ready to be cured

Whats left (about 1/3rd of the harvest)

Still havent received my Swt99s, and havent heard anything about the mystic gem's either. Starting to get nervous they might have gotten swiped. The swt99s were purchased 30 days ago. Hope they come!